Posting to a blog is a great way to generate long term traffic and build subject matter authority. Here are some simple ways to spark inspiration for your next blog post entry.

If you’re anything like I am, you have a million and one ideas for blog posts. You might also be like me and have a literal wall of Post-it notes acting as a visual display of ALL the things you want to write about on your blog. 

But if you are like most people (and most of my clients), you find yourself staring at a blinking cursor more often than not. It’s not always easy to come up with ideas for blogs! So here are some tricks you can use to get those creative juices flowing.

Four Methods to Strategically Brainstorm your next Blog Post

1. Deep dive on your DMs

Are your followers asking you questions about your Instagram posts and Stories? Are they commenting en masse on a certain thing? Mine your direct messages and social media comments for threads of ideas to expand on with a blog post.

Consider: if your audience is already highly engaged with that particular topic or thought on your social channels, they will be much more likely to click-thru when you provide them with a more meaty piece of content on that same topic! 

2. Learn how to read your Google Analytics

GA, as it’s known, is a gold mine for information when it comes to brainstorming post ideas. Sort your analytics based on your top performing content and write MORE content like that. Find spin-off post ideas, tutorials and updates that will continue to fuel the parts of your blog that are already working for you. 

3. Check out Google Search Console

Oh my, this is one of my favourite ways to be strategic! Search Console will show you what people are searching (like literally what they are typing into the Google Search bar) in order to land on your website. Sometimes the results will surprise you. If there’s something that comes up as a search term that you don’t have a post about, write a post about that!

For ex. If you write about organizing and a bunch of searches are coming to a general post about kitchen organization, but the search term they are using is ‘organize cutlery’ – write a specific post addressing that topic. 

4. Bust ’em out of Step-by-Steps

A lot of content creators write things like lists (or listicles), or step-by-step guides. I love love this type of content because it’s very user and Google-friendly, but it also offers a great way to build out new strategic content. If you have a list post, consider writing a post to correspond with every item on your list. This could have you flush with blog posts for (potentially) months.

If you have a great tutorial, consider if one of the steps is complex enough to be its own post.

Brainstorming for sake of getting your creative juices flowing is always a good idea. But being strategic about how and why you’re writing posts is a much more effective way to grow your blog and satisfy your reader.